eyebeams said:
Ok then:
1. Actually, I was thinking about what you said to me the last time I brought up China. I wasn't aware that these apparent backhanded threats were a regular thing.
Honestly, I do not recall. No doubt you will furnish me with a quote of something I said that I no longer remember. . .
eyebeams said:
2. Your attempts to equate the US with China in terms of the morality of doing business in those countries is a reductio ad absurdum argument. The fact remains that you do business with a country with a totalitarian government whose labour practices are abhorrent. I don't think this is an especially political thing to say, as it's a noncontroversial thing to observe that dictatorships that torture and enslave people are bad. The solution to warding off ethical nagging is as follows: Take your business elsewhere.
Believe it or not, your nagging is not going to dictate how we do business. You are also confusing the issue. I do business with a company in that country, not with its government. If you cannot grasp the difference, I do not see how we can resolve this. It is also apparent that you and I have different political views - but is that nay reason to fall out when discussing RPGs?
eyebeams said:
3. Sure you don't. That would be why you gave Conan's designer that raise, isn't it? Oh, wait a sec . . .
Boy, have you been listening to the wrong people
Conan's designer, before he had his contract with Mongoose terminated, had more pay rises than anyone else in the company. For most of his employment, he got paid more than I did.
eyebeams said:
4. I certainly didn't solicit the comments I got when I hit Gen Con 2003 and a freelancer immediately warned me against ever working for MGP. Still his comments were less colourful than the ones I heard from someone who was actually working on a book for the company. Again, those in a position to know more undoubtedly do.
Really, who was that then?
You might want to think about this though - what makes you think we would ever want to work with you in the first place?
eyebeams said:
5. If you can't afford to pay a decent rate, then it's not worth offering. My suspicion, though, is that MGP relies on writers who don't know how much of a ripoff a penny a word is. After all, it's allegedly what fulltimers make. In any event, the effect os to lower the already lax professional standards of companies when dealing with creatives, and the substitution of lassiez-faire capitalist rhetoric for actually taking responsibility for devaluing writing is an argument that can be safely ignored.
Well, first off, this is mostly your opinion - not fact.
Second, I guarantee you have no idea what our full-time writers earn beyond their starting rate. If anyone has told you that a long term staff writer at Mongoose earns less than 1 cent per word, they are just plain lying. I _can_ think of a couple of people whom you might have had such conversations with, but they were not at Mongoose long enough to get their foot on the first step of the pay ladder.
eyebeams said:
6. In fact, the folks who commented on the offer were, as I said, experienced industry folks. In fact, the breakdown based on testimonials on monthly production from your own staff peg the per word rate at just over a penny. Your assertion that this is a top pay rate is ridiculous. My per word rate is several times that and I'm mid-tier.
Why do you insist on twisting everything? First off, as I said above, you have no idea what our writers are paid once they move beyond their starting salary. Second, I said the people working in our office were paid top tier amounts - editors, managers, admin, sales, developers, etc.
As for assuming you are mid-tier yourself, I really cannot be bothered to argue the point. Whatever you wish to be.
eyebeams said:
7. See everything else here. Apparently you do a bangup job with your freelancers, but none of them are actually good enough to hire. And you'd offer more money to waged staff, but they keep stabbing you in the back.
Have I got that right?
I am pretty sure you have not. However, I am not sure I completely understand what you are trying to say here.
eyebeams said:
8. Large submissions on spec are certainly effective ways to screen for folks who are naive enough to write with no expectation of pay. Plus, you have to wonder: If freelancers are treated so terribly well, why doesn't MGP have a qualified pool to select from? If they do, why are they refusing freelancers a chance for advancement by not spurring the development of creative talent? Or is it because they won't actually make any more money at a salary breakdown of a penny a word?
The fact of the matter is that good writers don't knock off things for companies unless they expect to get paid. On spec writing is strictly amatuer hour business that selects for bad writers. Mongoose is the victim of its own policies, it seems.
First off, we do have a pool of freelancers to choose from - now. We had to build it up, over several years but we are quite comfortable with the current guys.
As for bad writers, I cannot disagree more. Gareth Hanrahan is a first class writer who has been with us for some time now. Greg Lynch is doing some great work at the moment on the new Wars RPG (and is largely responsible for Messantia). August Hahn is currently having a sabbatical for personal reasons but has an open invitiation to rejoin us once he has things on the level again.
Are you seriously trying to criticise the writing of any of these guys, all of whom came through the process we have described here?
We use this system because it works for us and we are tired of trying to hack through the egos of this industry. We prefer seeing things for ourselves. Games Workshop, incidentally, follows a similar course, so we are by no means alone.
It boils down to this - there will always be those who think they can run things better than those who do. Malcolm, I have tried once again to be very polite to you, but you only know one tiny part of the industry. There really is more to things than just your perspective - as a company, we have to pick the best route between all of them. _That_ is why the things we (and other companies) do is somethimes unfathomable to you.
eyebeams said:
Oh -- and number 3 according to who, again?
I am sorry, you have lost me again here - I do not get what you are trying to say.
